The Young Lawyers Division of the 28th Judicial District Bar will be hosting the Annual New Admittee Social at 5:30 on Thursday, October 5th to honor the new admittees to the 28th Judicial District Bar! Please join us on the patio at Asheville Brewing, 77 Coxe Avenue. All 28th Judicial Bar Members are welcome!

I wanted to give you some brief information in addition to what your received in the email from the State Bar Quarterly Update / e-newsletter. I know that document can be voluminous, so I asked Alice Mine (Ethics Counsel) and Peter Bolac (Legislative Liaison) from the North Carolina State Bar to let me know what might be useful areas to highlight to the membership.

Peter Bolac emailed me an attachment of the Legislative Update on H717: An Act to Revise Judicial Districts. I am attaching it to this email for your review. That bill is being considered by a select committee beginning yesterday (Sept. 12).

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your State Bar Council representative, and please feel free to contact me if you ever have any questions or concerns. My office contact information is below, and my cell is (828) 707-4249.

The 28th Judicial District Bar invites all new attorneys to join us for the Professionalism for New Admittees required continuing education class. The two-day class is free for new attorneys, and is offered on October 5th and 6th at the Van Winkle Law Firm’s Starnes Conference Room. Click here for more information, or to sign up.

The House Judiciary 1 Committee of the North Carolina Legislature approved a committee substitute to HB 717 which revises Superior Court Districts across the state. Of particular interest to Buncombe County Attorneys are three effects close to home:

Renumbering the Buncombe County single county district from the 28th Judicial district to the 39th.

Reorganizing the state from 8 divisions into 5 larger divisions. This means that Superior court Judges from Charlotte-Hickory-Lenior-Boone West would rotate through Asheville, and that judges from Murphy would hold sessions in Charlotte.

Buncombe County’s District Court District and Superior Court District would be divided in two, with 39B representing Fairview, Arden, Biltmore Park, Enka, Candler, and Leicester, while seat B would represent Asheville, West Asheville, Swannanoa, and Black Mountain. Each superior court seat would have one judge, while District 39A would have four District Court Judges and 39B would have 3 District Court Judges

The Asheville Tourists won over the Rome Braves with an impressive 7-0 series finale victory on Monday evening! Bar President Natalie Bacon threw out an impressive first pitch, and about 70 members of the Bar enjoyed a fun night of baseball at McCormick Field.

The election of officers for the fiscal year of July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018 will occur at the annual meeting of the Bar on June 14, 2017. The Nominating Committee of the 28th Judicial District Bar met Friday, April 28th from 12:30-1:30 to consider nominations for President-Elect, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and three members of the Executive Committee for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. At large members are elected for three year terms; officers serve for three year terms. Bar members may volunteer for service or nominate a colleague.

The success of the course, and the positive feedback from the attorneys who participated, has prompted the NC State Bar’s Lawyers’ Assistance Program (LAP) to partner with Conscious Legal Minds to bring the CLE to judicial districts and lawyers across the state. For more details about the course, read Laura’s article, What’s Mindfulness Got to Do With It, in the Summer 2017 edition of the NC State Bar Journal.

The 28th Judicial District Bar and Pisgah Legal Services honored four local attorneys who have an outstanding track record of pro bono service at the May Bar Luncheon. The following members were honored locally and nominated for statewide awards: David Hillier and Ben Scales for the NCBA’s William Thorpe Award, Zephyr Jost Sullivan for the NCBA’s Young Lawyer Award, and Johanna Fowler for the Client’s Choice Award.